Ireland/Britain

A Thousand Friends

Miriam Kilgarriff, pictured above in her consulting room in Tuam, is about to go to Kenya for the second time, to work with Asante.

Please click on the button in center of picture and turn up the sound

My own involvement began when, before Christmas, a young couple asked me to come on board to raise €3,000 for our Mercy Mision in Kenya. With the recession, this was going to prove difficult, so I set myself a challenge. Had I one thousand friends? Well, I'd check it out and get €1 from each of them. To date, the fund has reached €1,353. Family and friends thought the idea a brilliant one and the euros came pouring in. The Mercy Sisters were great and €1 from every Mercy Sister in Ireland was bound to bring success. The Northern Province put my idea on their Web page and the letters came every day laden with sterling.

If you, with a Mercy Heart, want to give €1 and have not done so, welcome to my world.

Miriam is pictured again above with her father, her sister Mary and myself, Agnes Curley. Miriam will be travelling to Kenya at the end of March and staying with the Mercy Sisters in Mutomo. She will be paying her own expenses and all the money raised will go directly to the charity Asente, which works for the the provision of improved sight for all.

As we can see, Kilgarriffs have been in business in Tuam for over one hundred years. Miriam's grand aunt, Sister Gabriel, was one of the early Mercy Sisters who ministered to the poor of Tuam.